Be PREPARED! Winter Storm Tips! 

I’m in Montana and the coldest night we had was -54 without the windchill. My well pump and tank are all underground in an insulated vault. All the utilities are in an inside utility room.

Good content Andrew, just want to do an FYI you can pass on to your other viewers. After draining your spickets you should always 45 all the ball valves after you have opened them all the way because a small amount of water almost always gets trapped between the ball portion and the seating portion of the valve. Also all gate valves should be opened all the way then backed down just a turn so not to trap water above the gate in the bonnet which can freeze and bust it. Hope this helps you and many others out.👍👍👍you deserve 3 thumbs up, stay warm we are coming off of a couple days of - number lows but it is still going to be way below freezing for the next week or so with some snow...

Where I am (northeast USA), it's about the same as everyone else is saying. Outdoor plumbing (water, sewer) is buried below the frost line. Yard/fire hydrants are frost proof, so the valve itself is below the frost line and self-drains when turned off. Indoor plumbing needs to be in the conditioned building envelope, and exterior walls are avoided for where possible.

Just FYI, I was reminded of something I really like when I saw your water pressure tank. We just changed from a similar water system to one called "a constant pressure system". That large pressure tank is replaced by a 2 or 3 gallon tank, and a variable speed contoller is put on the well pump. When in use, your water pressure is always within 2 or 3 psi of your set point regardless of the volume of water being used (within extreme limits). Your conventional system operates on a pressure switch turning the pump on or off between pressure settings that usually differ by at least 20 psi. We run at 70 psi off our well. Also just a fun fact... in Wisconsin, code requires burying underground water pipes at 7 feet deep due to frost. (I don't think frost goes much below 4', but that is the code.)

Great info for those of us in the south that "normally" don't have these kinds of temperatures

Thank You. I saw your old rain gauge. I have the same one at my house. It does a great job going to the 1/100 of an inch of rain. Keep Up The Good Work.

Being prepared and ready is key! Yall stay warm. 🇺🇸💪

Another thing I would add to your collection of pipe fittings is extra pipe! You can usually find 2’ sticks of whatever size you need. If you do have a split pipe, it may be easier to splice in a piece rather than trying to fumble around with a whole 10’ section of pipe! Easier to store and won’t take up as much space as your long sticks of PVC. Just a thought from a northerner that has replaced a pipe or two 😅

Great stuff Andrew, Its always great to be prepared and not to mess around and find out. I personally find it intriguing how different utilities are across the country (rightfully so). As you mentioned, up here in Iowa we had temps with windchill down to -45 F. Stay warm down South!

Thanks for sharing a very comprehensive check list Andrew. I hope it helps some people say ohh I didn't think of that..

Thats a really nice set-up on the entire property!!❤❤

Great video!! Love the channel

Great info sir. Thanks.👍

Good information and reminders for us southerners Andrew. Getting chilly up here in north GA the next few days and doing much of the same. Take care!

Hi Andrew, that was a good review. Take care and stay warm. ❤️❤️👍👍🇨🇦

Thanks for all the info and reminders....I know some people will need it...sometimes it's the little things people forget that can cause the most problems.

Great information. thanks for sharing..

Used heat tape year round at my home in the south. We had several outdoors water lines. The tape I used had a thermostat and would only actually run when it was needed, there was no energy wasted if it stayed plugged in. It just sat there idle 340 days a year. But when it was needed, it was amazing.

This is a great video. Thank you I kn[w you have saved many.

Good video Andrew! I am a 50 miles south of you. I am pulling the same dumb stuff of crossing my fingers and hoping for the best! Your advice is great.

Hey they make temperature-controlled outlet switches so instead of a timer it runs off the temperature that's what I used for some insulated faucet covers I built (on my channel). If I remember right they turn on when it gets down to like 35 and then they won't turn off till it gets up to like 45 or something like that.

It’s 35.2° here currently at my house at the moment. Went outside and winterized my pipes before the sun went down.

Great content. Up here in Saskatoon Saskatchewan our lines are buried 8-10 feet below the ground to prevent freezing, as the frost gets "pushed down" with the cold temperatures that we experience. Currently just getting over our -40 to -35 degrees Celsius temperatures, windchill around -50 but we had a very mild winter up until then. Only about -10 degrees. On the heat tape, I would look into self regulating tape if you are looking at conserving energy. It only gets warm in certain areas of the tape. And of course all our water lines are inside in front of the vapor barrier with insulation behind that.

Good information video. Thank you as a reminder. When you build your well house, don't forget to leave enough room for the doors, so you can move equipment in and out and don't forget the hatch on top of the roof above your well.

The heated water buckets work really well . Won't warm the water, but will keep it from freezing solid

Ganna be coooold in that deer stand in the morning Ol Son. 🦌🥶🤣

I use these in my chicken coops to turn on the heaters at a certain temp or turn on the fans when needed in the summer. In three years, I have only had one fail due to a rat eating off the sensor. Pymeter Digital Temperature Controller Dual Probe Reptile Thermostat Controlled Outlet for Terrarium Heat Mat Heating Pad, Switch Cooling Fan Freezer Fridge ON & Off at Setpoints 10A 1200W

Excellent video! Central Missouri just had 3 days where it didn’t get above zero…

You cant see it but you got a standing ovation from me Andrew! This was a Fantastic video!!

Great video, Andrew’s Plumbing Store.

02:48. Bad advice “ you can also drip your faucet”. When u in city of everyone drips there faucets. There is less water pressure at the fire hydrant for the fire truck trying to put out a fire!

My man is already. Andrew thinks of everything.

In, my first , first. We have single digits and 7” of snow here in West TN. Roads are crap, so at home chilling. Perfect time for a TKCL video. TVA is saying maybe rolling Blackouts in the morning.

I’m sure you’ve already done so but don’t forget your hand pump well. Another informative video! And just in time as it looks like you’re gonna get mid 20’s tonight and tomorrow. Not to mention the low 20’s coming at y’all on Saturday night. Stay warm and keep those cameras rolling! 😂

You made great points!!!❤ thank you❤they did rolling black-outs here in North AL last year. Took my house 3 days to heat back up to 50 degrees. 😡 this year I have the propane buddy heater, propane logs, propane cook top

Perhaps another side quest to the builds, but a small greenhouse for the outdoor equipment and greenhouse style shed for the wall equipment may just pay for itself. Something that can be put up and put away in half an hr or so (also went through the rest of the video at least a small greenhouse for the wall equipment, you did mention a well house).

a little trick to make the outside hydrant more permanent would be to slip a bigger piece of pvc over the insulation not only protecting from freezing but damage from weed eaters and such. a shield of ridged foam in a light wood frame and covered with some sort of water proof covering the heat lamp would probably keep you fine __UNLESS you lose all electricity. here in N Oklahoma we are down to single digits with - 0 windchills !!! we put all pipes around 3ft down , heat tapes and insulation where above ground and able , a lot of our garden lines are only about 18 in down but i drain it back down. we have a 30ft stock tank for the cattle i put a 5 ft oval tank that the bottom rusted out in it around the water line that comes up inside the tank and put a jet on it to circulate the water. our dogs dont use any shelter that we put out unless it is raining sleep out on TOP of the round bales of hay!!! :) i almost never take back any extra piping supplies. hope you dont have too much cold we already have had about 10 days of below freezing Have Fun and Stay Warm :)

In Maryland, everything is 36" below ground including the wellhead. This makes finding the wellhead lots of fun 20 years later when no one remembers where exactly it was when it was covered over. Ask me how I know... :) (comment left)

Andrew why is it every year the news tells Americans that the winter weather is here and it’s the end of the world for the south. Why is it that people living in the south don’t know when winter is here. It’s so sad that all my life I hear every year the south is frozen and American people have a winter Crisis! Why can’t people in the south be ready for the winter ? Well today you are addressing this huge problem !!! THANKS KELLEYS! GOD BLESS

Yes it’s totally different up here. Everything is inside a heated structure or a minimum 36” below ground. Hopefully you made it through the cold snap okay.

I live in Maine, and know about this, so you should heed my observations. The heated wiring for your pipes will do nothing outside the foam insulation. Also your filters will freeze and crack without wrapping them with the wire and then covering them with some form of insulation.

Awesome video. 😊

Hello Andrew how are you doing buddy? That was good advice man. You'll be surprised how many people are unprepared. It is extremely cold at my house right now at 18° Degrees outside with 6" inches of snow that we just got this morning. This is some extreme cold weather man. All 6 of my boys Won't let me go outside because they don't want my feet 🦶 & toes to hurt from the cold weather. They said that they would want there wide feet 🦶 to hurt wearing boots then my feet 🦶 & toes to hurt. This is one reason why I love my boys. I can't believe how this cold weather is all over the east coast man. You take care and stay warm buddy.

I'm surprised the heat table instructions didn't say to NOT cross the tape back over itself. Everyone that I've ever used warned against doing that. I like your plan to mount the heat lamp on a stake away from the house. I nearly burnt my back deck down due to placing one of those flood type aluminum lighting reflector too close to my deck boards (trying to keep a faucet from freezing). Be safe!!

My kitchen water froze up yesterday. I shut off the hot water tank port (so it stayed semi-full) opened the bathtub faucet to relieve the line and shut the water off at the main, and it will stay off until tomorrow, provided its as warm as they say. I am using pre-filled gallon jugs, a lesson learned from every winter here even though ALL the water pipes are insulated with foam covers as well as blow-in! Literally every time the furnace clicks on I hear an old-time cash register Cha Chinging

Hi, Andrew! Looks like you’ve got everything cared for. Praying you have no damage. I would never make it up North. I am not fond of snow.

We drip our faucets and leave the cabinets (with sinks) open to get heat. Insulate pipes and heat tape like you showed....its just all running inside the home

Y’all about to get we had yesterday in south Louisiana this morning everything was solid ice. I couldn’t get the door open on my truck was frozen shut. Tonight is forecast to be 10 degrees crazy weather for up as well.

nailed it! be prepared and dont forget to top off your car and pickup batteries with a battery charger! lead acid batteries dont work so well in sub cold temps!

Alberta Canada (the most American like province) is going through rolling blackouts right now. The only reason they still have any power is that pesky, dirty, going to kill us every 5 years coal plant they still have. Great tips by the way. I have lots of those things even though I'm in an apartment right now lol.

We are about 24 miles or so from you, so I am really interested in your build content, etc. We are completely off-grid using solar for power. We had to go drain all the water lines and tank on the well, etc. Great tips!

I just watched your video on the weather preparation and you made a comment about your PVC glue not lasting but a few weeks after being opened if you store your PVC glue upside downwards after opening it will last longer

Store your glue with the lid facing down and it won't go bad for months........

Cool news about batteries, I was watching Stoney Ridge, Farmer, and he just got a new one and they’re starting to build automatic heaters in the batteries. It would be cool if you got some of those and could test their efficiency, I wonder how much energy the internal heaters will take from the battery 🤔

Antifreeze needs to be tested in your car to make certsi it is good to below zero temps.

Can you do a video on cleaning your tankless water heater, please.

One thing that I use to clear out the hoses is using an air compressor to garden hose adapter to blow out the line. I have several hundred feet of hoses so it works for me, but they are relatively cheap to have among your air compressor accessories.

We don’t really do a lot here, any spigot going to the outside is self draining, we take off our hoses and I get those little foam covers for the faucets, but I’ve left them off a lot of years, and it didn’t seem to matter as long as you get the hoses off and drain the hoses. The waterlines are all underground and come up under the house which stays quite a bit warmer. There are vents to underneath the house, and I usually cut some plastic off and use some silicone to block off airflow under the house and that keeps it warmer if there’s a lot of wind. But most of it just kind of automatic as long as you get the hoses off and the devices drain themselves, and and all the water comes out from the house unless you have an outdoor self draining spigot so there’s really not much to do on the things I do are just kind of overkill. In California it would only freeze every couple of years when I was in Los Angeles area and we had our water heater and some pipes outside but had a separate cover on it, ours was a pre-manufactured box, but a lot of people will just build a small room around it or just Put three walls around it up against the house and that’s usually enough there and we had an insulating blanket on the outside of our water heater but the water heater is touching those pipes so you have heat in that little room, ours was small like a 4‘ x 4‘ little metal shed almost Almost look like a cabinet with a piece of slanted roofing on it and it wasn’t even insulated, but it was enough to keep some heat in and the frost off. In the 20 years I’ve lived in freezing areas. I’ve only turned on the water a couple of times to let it drip inside the house to keep water moving in the pipes, but unless your heat goes out in your house, it usually doesn’t matter because all the pipes have to be at least 18 inches underground, so if the electric goes out and we have no heater or if you’re leaving your house unheated, but usually the pipes are in a heated area so you don’t have to worry about it inside the house. I do kind of always freak out when I see your well open like that😂 I guess it triggers me 😂 I would always build a structure around it with a little bit of insulation and they sell these little plugs you put in the wallet you can just plug any little heater into and when it drops below about 40° it turns that outlet on so it’ll turn on whatever you have plugged into it, I like those little oil heaters and that’s what I would probably use. I never have, but I know some people winterize their garage and put radiators in them but my truck just gets snowed on now lol I’ve kind of been waiting. I figured it sometime. You would probably build some sort of structure over your well.

We will be in the 20'sF at night 5 days this week. There is heat tape that you can get , by the foot, in different widths/lengths from online reptile supply places. Its meant for terrariums or reptile enclosures, plant shelves etc. You buy the plug and thermostat etc and diy it. It works fine for plumbing or other things too. When I built our first wine-o-bator (egg incubator from a wine cooler) I also used some heat tape for my heat source along w a computer fan. In WY our well house was 12 ft underground . We had waterpipes in the house that ran hot water through them to heat the floor. We had a wood stove and fireplace. We never really worried about winterizing except the horses , farm animals etc. but they had a heater in their water trough and a warm barn. Garage was also heated. I use a Propane Heater in my greenhouse on nights under 32F for all our tropicals.

I only put something up around the chicken coop to block the wind when it gets down pretty cold. My chickens have been fine every winter just make sure they have plenty of food and water

Andrew don’t laugh but I have my tractor tires filled with windshield washer fluid. I found it to be cheaper than what the tire shops wanted to put In them plus I was able to do it myself. By the way I’m in North Texas and yes it got down to 8 degrees here with the windchill a -14 at one point. We have had like 4 days now that it’s been below 32. Today is Wednesday the 17th and we will get about 32 today finally.

Great Video! One thing about the heat tape, the instructions state that the thermostat needs to be in contact with the pipe being heated. I don't know what will happen if it isn't as I have always followed the instructions and had success.

Andrew I love watching your content, I learn something new every time. I do have a thought for you, On the back of your house you are using the heat tape on your pipes and then using a heatlamp. If the heat lamp keeps the area above freezing will that not keep the heat tape from coming on? Just a thought.

Another great and helpful video. Can you tell me what descale filter you decided on or link to a video, if you have one, on your filter system? Thanks for all the content

Another thing to do is anti-gel your diesel for those in prolonged cold.

I have the same tankless water heater. I had to heat up my propane regulator so it would light. It was throwing me a code 11. I insulated the regulator tonight. I hope it works.

"WINTER" storm tips!.... from Buffalo, nooo, from MT, noooo, from N or S Dakota.... noooo, oh... from FL... aaaanneewayy, ive got some great hurricane tips coming for next spring... smFh...

Andrew hearts tiffany wrote on the work bench. Anyone point that out before?

Those heat lamps NEED TO HAVE CERAMIC bulb receptacle not plastic. Those red 250 watt bulbs pull a lot of power the plastic will melt, catch fire, break etc.

Well, Andrew has a stash of plumbing stuff for the entire state of Florida, so you're good, folks, LOL Now seriously, I read somewhere that an entire solar power farm ( I think in Nevada) got busted by hail. Any way to protect your panels?

The man has a PhD from the School of Hard Knocks

How often does it freeze down there? I always see people in Florida talking about how it doesn’t freeze often, but are preparing for freezing. Like the faucets we put on our house drain the water out, so it doesn’t freeze and keeps the part with water and it way under the house or the self draining freeze proof hydrants. It doesn’t seem that much more expensive to use those but it seems like every couple years. You guys are still dealing with it even though it’s not as common. Our spigots are either self draining if they come from the ground so I don’t have to worry about that. If they come out of the house they’re also self draining and I usually put those little foam boxes over them. But it seems like you guys get freezing enough to wear it would still be worth it??

Dont forget your solar powered emergency well?

Welcome to a taste of Wisconsin Andrew AHAHAHHAA... That insulation is just gonna delay the Freezing.. You are better off draining or let then trickle. And yes leave the pump running Moving water has a resistance to freezing. Thanks Much...

Five days without water you learn a lot. just saying

Just a suggestion. How about introducing yourself in your videos you might have new people that don't know you 🤔

Our previous home up north plumbing was underground under frost line from the street and came in the basement wall below frost line. Slab homes the plumbing is run below frost line then insulated when it 90s up toward a utility room. Saw a few nightmares were new builders ran plumbing on an outside wall and had zero insulation. Every house of the same model had leaks.